Gutters are commonly used along eaves at a lower end of a sloping roof to catch water running off of the roof and channel that water into particular areas rather than allowing the water to merely fall from the roof. Such gutters often become clogged, especially when trees are located nearby and shed leaves which can end up in the gutters. Accordingly, leaf preclusion systems, often called “gutter guards,” are known in the prior art for attachment over the gutters. Such gutter guards serve the basic purpose of allowing water to pass into the gutter but precluding leaves and other debris from passing into the gutter.
One type of gutter guard utilizes a filter layer which has small openings therein which allow water to pass through but which preclude leaves and other debris from passing therethrough. One example of such a prior art mesh based leaf preclusion system is in U.S. Pat. No. 7,310,912, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The phenomena of water tension and molecular cohesion tend to cause water to not want to pass through such mesh layers, but rather to cling to the mesh. These forces thus frustrate the ability of mesh based gutter guards to allow water to pass through the mesh while precluding debris from passing into the gutter. With known prior art mesh based gutter guards, commonly an underlying support is provided beneath the mesh. This underlying support serves two purposes. First, it keeps the mesh generally planar overlying the gutter. Second, it contacts an underside of the mesh providing a path along which water can flow while adhering to the underlying support. Holes in the underlying support then allow water to drop through in larger drops where the weight of the drops is sufficient that the surface tension and adhesion forces cannot resist such dropping.
While effective, such mesh based gutter guards with underlying supports require a two part structure to operate effectively. These two parts increase the cost to manufacture the separate parts as well as adding additional assembly steps to produce the final gutter guard product. Many consumers benefit from having a simpler and potentially lower cost alternative which can still function effectively to preclude leaves and other debris from collecting within a gutter. With this invention such a leaf preclusion system is provided with a simple single part construction which can still effectively filter leaves and other debris out while allowing water to pass into the gutter and have the structural support needed to maintain its position overlying the gutter.